Software Project

Management
Chapter 6
4th Edition

Activity planning

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 Scheduling
‘Time is nature’s way of stopping everything
happening at once’
Having
– worked out a method of doing the project
– identified the tasks to be carried
– assessed the time needed to do each task
need to allocate dates/times for the start
and end of each activity

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 Activity networks
These help us to:
• Assess the feasibility of the planned
project completion date
• Identify when resources will need to be
deployed to activities
• Calculate when costs will be incurred
This helps the co-ordination and
motivation of the project team
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 Work breakdown structure
• This technique (sometimes called a
system breakdown structure)
is used to define and organize the total
scope of a project.

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 Identifying activities
• Work-based: draw-up a Work
Breakdown Structure listing the work
items needed
• Product-based approach
– list the deliverable and intermediate
products of project – product breakdown
structure (PBS)
– Identify the order in which products have
to be created
– work out the activities needed to create
the products
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 The final outcome of the
planning process
A project plan as a bar chart

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 Hybrid approach

A Work Breakdown Structure based

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on deliverables
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 Network Planning Models
• AOA – Activity on Arrow
• AON – Activity on Node
• AOA
– CPM – Critical Path Method
– PERT – Program Evaluation Review Technique
• AON
– Precedence Network

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 PERT vs CPM

Do B
PERT

Do A Do D

Do C
CPM
Do B
Do A

Do D
Do C

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 Drawing up a PERT diagram

• No looping back is allowed – deal with

iterations by hiding them within single
activities

• milestones – ‘activities’, such as the

start and end of the project, which
indicate transition points. They have
zero duration. 10
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 Lagged activities
Where there is a fixed delay between
activities e.g. seven days notice has to
be given to users that a new release
has been signed off and is to be
installed

7days
Acceptance Install new
testing release
20 days 1day

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 Types of links between
activities
Finish to start
Software
development Acceptance testing

Start to start/ Finish to finish

Test prototype
2 days

1 day Document
Amendments
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 Types of links between
activities
• Start to finish

Operate temporary
system

Acceptance test Cutover to new

of new system system

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 Start and finish times
Latest
Earliest start finish
activity

Latest start Earliest finish

• Activity ‘write report software’

• Earliest start (ES)
• Earliest finish (EF) = ES + duration
• Latest finish (LF) = latest task can be
completed without affecting project end
Latest start = LF - duration
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 Example

• earliest start = day • earliest finish = ?

5 • latest start = ?
• latest finish = day
30
• duration = 10 days

Float = LF - ES - duration

What is it in this case?

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 Notation
Activity label Duration

ES EF
Activity description
LS LF

Activity span Float

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Complete for previous example

SPM Activity planning 11

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 Earliest start date
• Earliest start date for the current
activity = earliest finish date for the
previous
• When there is more than one previous
activity, take the latest earliest finish
• Note ‘day 7’ = end of work on day 7
EF = day 7
ES = day10

EF = day10
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Example of an activity
network

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 Complete the table
Activity ES duration EF
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
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 Latest start dates
• Start from the last activity
• Latest finish (LF) for last activity = earliest
finish (EF)
• work backwards
• Latest finish for current activity = Latest
start for the following
• More than one following activity - take the
earliest LS
• Latest start (LS) = LF for activity - duration
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Example: LS for all activities?

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 Complete the table
Activity ES Dur EF LS LF
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
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 Float

Float = Latest finish -

Earliest start -
Duration

FLOAT
LF
ES
activity

Latest start
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 Complete the table
Act- ES Dur EF LS LF Float
ivity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
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 Critical path
• Note the path through network with
zero floats
• Critical path: any delay in an activity on
this path will delay whole project
• Can there be more than one critical
path?
• Can there be no critical path?
• Sub-critical paths
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Free and interfering float
A 7w
0 7 B can be up to 3 days late
2 9 and not affect any
2 other activity = free float
B 4w D 1w E 2w
0 4 7 8 10 12
5 9 9 10 10 12
5 2 0

C 10w
0 10
0 10
0 B can be a further 2 days late – affects
D but not the project end date =
interfering float
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